Miss. legalizing marijuana extract as medicine

JACKSON -- Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill to legalize a marijuana extract to be used as medicine under tightly controlled circumstances.

House Bill 1231 becomes law July 1. Republican Bryant says he signed it Thursday, only after Bureau of Narcotics officials assured him the oil can't be used to produce a high.

The medicine is used to reduce seizures in children with epilepsy.

It would be available by prescription and dispensed through a University of Mississippi Medical Center pharmacy. The medical center would obtain its supply from the University of Mississippi's National Center for Natural Products Research in Oxford. That center grows marijuana for medical research sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Bryant says he opposes any other attempt to legalize marijuana or products from it.